Erin Joyce

America Online is changing its anti-spam policy in order to foil what could be the next spam onslaught: unwanted instant messages, colloquially known as “spim.” Andrew Weinstein, a spokesman for AOL, said the ISP has expanded its definition of spam to include bulk instant messages that are starting to proliferate in AOL’s popular chat rooms. […]

IBM and Adobe Systems have teamed up on a new set of cryptography features in Adobe’s latest Acrobat 6.0 software that are designed to make digital documents more secure by keeping encryption keys out of sight of the computer’s operating system. With an embedded security chip in the motherboard of IBM’s latest ThinkPad notebook PCs, […]

Electronics and wireless device giant Motorola is adding support for embedded Linux in its “DragonBall” family of processors via MontaVista’s Linux Professional Edition 3.0. The deal expands a relationship between the two companies established in March, when Motorola opted to turn to MontaVista for the operating system for its A760 Linux-Java phone. Embedded Linux specialist […]

An ongoing federal accounting probe at wireless bar-code device company Symbol Technologies has led to the resignation of its co-founder and chairman of the board, Dr. Jerome Swartz. The company also said its chief counsel had decided to leave the company. Monday’s abrupt resignation of Swartz, a company founder who was also its chief scientist, […]

Computer services player EDS , looking for a sweet spot in the data storage sector, has launched a new service called Mobile Information Protection to spearhead data security on PCs as well as a growing array of mobile devices. The plan is for the Mobile Information Protection group to focus on protecting information that is […]

Last April, Electronic Data Systems launched a new digital asset management practice within its media and entertainment group, officially pitting the computer services giant against systems vendors and outsourcing rivals IBM and HP . In the exploding world of digital media, asset management is the buzzword for IT providers large and small, each chasing a […]

Financial services firm ING Canada is now among the latest enterprise networks to embrace open-source operating system Linux as part of a wide-ranging plan to upgrade its Internet-based operations. ING, the largest provider of property and casualty insurance products in Canada, said it has signed a multi-year deal with Armonk, N.Y.’s IBM , in which […]

Three major software companies are putting their rivalry aside for the sake of security and are joining Microsoft and other software providers to build a Web repository about virus threats affecting Microsoft products. Computer Associates , Sybari Software and Symantec are joining the Virus Information Alliance (VIA), a repository launched in May by Microsoft along […]

Peregrine Systems , the e-commerce software company currently in bankruptcy, Monday said it has reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over charges of fraudulent accounting. Without admitting guilt, the San Diego-based Peregrine said the settlement resolves all matters against it, except disgorgement of past profits or civil penalties, if there […]

Computer services company EDS has been saying business process outsourcing is its sweet spot for growth as it realigns some of its business lines and shores up more operating cash. On Monday, it announced two new BPO deals, but also lowered its cash flow expectations for the second quarter due to a late payment from […]

The promise of XML to help streamline and expand the collection and sharing of data is arriving at a federal financial institution that ensures the soundness of many of the nation’s banks. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) recently awarded a $39 million outsourcing contract Unisys to help build XBRL (extensible business reporting language), an […]

Hewlett-Packard and international open source group SuSE Linux are expanding their alliance that calls for HP to resell and support SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, powered by open source consortium UnitedLinux, on HP’s ProLiant servers with Itanium-based servers. The companies said the relationship would help provide customers a single point of purchase, support and maintenance […]